But The Judgment
Displayed In The Matter Is A Military Question With Which I Do Not
Presume To Meddle.
Even if a general be wrong in such a matter, his
character as a man is not disgraced by such error.
But the manner
of building them was the affair with which Mr. Van Wyck's Committee
had to deal. It seems that five of the forts, the five largest,
were made under the orders of a certain Major Kappner, at a cost of
12,000l., and that the other five could have been built at least for
the same sum. Major Kappner seems to have been a good and honest
public servant, and therefore quite unfit for the superintendence of
such work at St. Louis. The other five smaller forts were also in
progress, the works on them having been continued from 1st of
September to 25th of September, 1861; but on the 25th of September
General Fremont himself gave special orders that a contract should
be made with a man named Beard, a Californian, who had followed him
from California to St. Louis. This contract is dated the 25th of
September. But nevertheless the work specified in that contract was
done previous to that date, and most of the money paid was paid
previous to that date. The contract did not specify any lump sum,
but agreed that the work should be paid for by the yard and by the
square foot. No less a sum was paid to Beard for this work - the
cormorant Beard, as the report calls him - than 24,200l., the last
payment only, amounting to 4000l., having been made subsequent to
the date of the contract. Twenty thousand two hundred pounds was
paid to Beard before the date of the contract! The amounts were
paid at five times, and the last four payments were made on the
personal order of General Fremont. This Beard was under no bond,
and none of the officers of the government knew anything of the
terms under which he was working. On the 14th of October General
Fremont was ordered to discontinue these works, and to abstain from
making any further payments on their account. But, disobeying this
order, he directed his quartermaster to pay a further sum of 4000l.
to Beard out of the first sums he should receive from Washington, he
then being out of money. This, however, was not paid. "It must be
understood," says the report, "that every dollar ordered to be paid
by General Fremont on account of these works was diverted from a
fund specially appropriated for another purpose." And then again:
"The money appropriated by Congress to subsist and clothe and
transport our armies was then, in utter contempt of all law and of
the army regulations, as well as in defiance of superior authority,
ordered to be diverted from its lawful purpose and turned over to
the cormorant Beard. While he had received l70,000 dollars
(24,200l.) from the government, it will be seen from the testimony
of Major Kappner that there had only been paid to the honest German
laborers, who did the work on the first five forts built under his
directions, the sum of 15,500 dollars, (3100l.,) leaving from 40,000
to 50,000 dollars (8000l. to 10,000l.) still due; and while these
laborers, whose families were clamoring for bread, were besieging
the quartermaster's department for their pay, this infamous
contractor Beard is found following up the army and in the
confidence of the major-general, who gives him orders for large
purchases, which could only have been legally made through the
quartermaster's department." After that, who will believe that all
the money went into Beard's pocket?
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 126 of 275
Words from 64680 to 65300
of 142339
